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    "id": 1074514,
    "title": "PG Tips Original Black Tea 40, 116g",
    "slug": "pg-tips-original-black-tea-40-116g",
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    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/product/pg-tips-original-black-tea-40-116g/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:30:30+01:00",
    "excerpt": "PG Tips Original Black Tea is the forty-bag box of one of Britain's two default everyday blends, brisk rather than malty, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the small pack for holiday lets, offices and anyone trying the blend before committing.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.A hundred and sixteen grams across forty bags is about 2.9 grams each, the same dose per bag as the larger boxes rather than a thinner fill. Boiling water, three to four minutes, bag out before the milk goes in.Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.",
    "content_text": "PG Tips Original Black Tea in the forty-bag box is the small pack of one of Britain's default teas. A hundred and sixteen grams across forty bags is about 2.9 grams each, which is a full-size everyday dose rather than the lighter fill some smaller boxes get. Nothing has been thinned out to make the box cheaper; it is the same weight of leaf per bag as the big box, just fewer of them.\n\nThat makes this a particular kind of purchase rather than the obvious one. Forty bags is roughly a fortnight for one regular tea drinker, or a few days for a household. It is the box for a holiday let, a caravan, an office drawer, a spare room, or a first flat, and it is the box to buy if you want to find out whether you like a tea before committing to eighty or four hundred of them. If you drink it every day at home, the larger box is the better buy and we would rather say so.\n\n The Taste Profile\n\nBriskness: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) The clean, sharp lift that defines the PG Tips style. Brighter and less heavy than a Yorkshire-style blend, which is the main difference between the two camps.\nMalt: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Present but restrained. This is the brisker of the two great British everyday blends rather than the maltier one.\nBody: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) Full enough to take milk without vanishing, helped by the generous 2.9 gram dose.\nAstringency: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Moderate and well behaved. It forgives a slightly long steep better than a harder blend does, which is part of why it became a national default.\n\nTeas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.6 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk\n\n The Story Behind PG Tips\n\nPG Tips is one of the two blends that between them account for most of the tea drunk in British kitchens, and the Original is the standard against which people measure everything else.\n\nThe honest framing for a box this size is about quantity rather than quality. Nothing about the tea changes between the forty and the eighty; the leaf weight per bag is the same. What changes is the price per cup, and the smaller box is always the dearer way to drink the same tea. That is normal across every grocery category and it is not a criticism of this pack, but it does mean you should buy it for a reason rather than by default.\n\nPackaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.\n\n What You Are Actually Buying\n\nCount and weight: forty bags, 116 grams, which is about 2.9 grams a bag. The same dose per bag as the larger boxes, not a thinner one.\n\nWho it is for: small households, holiday lets, offices, caravans, and anyone trying the blend before committing to a big box.\nFormat: standard one-cup bags in a cardboard box. They fit any mug and any pot.\nWhat it is not: not a decaf, not a flavoured blend and not the Gold Special Blend. It is the plain original at full caffeine.\n\n How Does PG Tips Original Black Tea 40, 116g Compare to:\n\nPG Tips Original English Breakfast, 80 Tea Bags 232g: exactly double this box: 232 grams across eighty bags, so an identical 2.9 grams a bag. The tea in the mug is the same and the price per cup is lower. If you drink PG Tips at home every day, buy that one and buy this only when you need the smaller quantity.\nTetley Original English Breakfast, 40 Tea Bags 125g: the direct rival at the same count, and slightly heavier at 125 grams across forty bags. A rounder, softer cup with a touch less of the brisk edge. The choice between them is the oldest argument in British tea and comes down to whether you like the lift or the smoothness.\n\n Ideal Brewing Conditions\n\nEveryday black tea is forgiving until it is not, and this blend is more forgiving than most. The two mistakes that still spoil it are water that has sat off the boil and a bag lifted out as soon as the colour looks right. Colour arrives well before flavour does, which is why a ninety-second cup looks finished and tastes hollow.\n\nThe Standard Mug\n\nWater: straight off a fresh boil at 100 degrees Celsius. Black tea is the one family that genuinely wants full heat.\nMeasure: one bag per mug of 250 to 300ml. At 2.9 grams there is no need to double up.\nSteep: three to four minutes. Three gives the brisk version, four the fuller one.\nMilk: in after the bag comes out. Milk added first drops the water temperature and the leaf never opens properly.\n\nThe Pot\n\nWarm it: a splash of boiling water swirled round and tipped away.\nMeasure: one bag per mug you intend to pour.\nSteep: four minutes, then lift every bag out rather than leaving them in.\nHold: a cosy keeps it right for about twenty minutes. Reheating does not.\n\n Getting It Right in the Cup\n\nWater temperature: 100 degrees Celsius, freshly boiled and not reboiled twice.\nMeasure: one bag to 250 to 300ml.\nSteep: three to four minutes, then out.\nMilk: suits it and the blend expects it. Lemon works if you skip the milk.\nSqueezing: a gentle press is fine; a hard squeeze against the side of the mug drives a burst of tannin into the cup and is the fastest way to make a forgiving tea taste bitter.\nHard water: flattens the brisk top note and leaves a film. Half a minute longer restores most of it.\nStorage: sealed, cool, dark and away from coffee and spices. Cardboard is porous.\nBest with: breakfast, a bacon sandwich, biscuits, and the mug made the moment somebody arrives.\n\n Safety And Purity\n\nIngredients and dietary suitability: Check the current UK box before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.\n\nCaffeine note: A full-caffeine black tea. We place it in the middle of our scale, and that placement is our own editorial judgement rather than a measurement.\n\nBag material: The bag material, shape and any compostability claim are printed on the current UK box.\n\nChild safety: A caffeinated tea and not a children's drink. Keep out of reach.",
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                "title": "Product Questions",
                "content": "Is the tea in the small box the same as the big box?Yes as far as the dose goes. A hundred and sixteen grams across forty bags is about 2.9 grams a bag, which is the same leaf weight per bag as the eighty-bag, 232 gram box. Nothing has been thinned to make the smaller box cheaper; there are simply fewer bags in it. Should I buy this or the eighty-bag box?If you drink PG Tips every day at home, buy the eighty. This forty is the right choice when you need the smaller quantity: a holiday let, an office drawer, a caravan, or a trial before committing. Does it contain caffeine?Yes. This is the full-caffeine original, not a decaf. How long should I brew it?Three to four minutes in water straight off the boil. Three gives the brisk version and four the fuller one. The colour looks finished long before the flavour is, which is why a ninety-second cup tastes hollow. Milk in first or last?Last, with the bag already out. Milk poured in early drops the water temperature below the point where the leaf opens properly, and you end up compensating with a longer steep that brings astringency with it. How many mugs does the box make?Forty, one bag to a mug. How does it compare with Yorkshire Tea?PG Tips is the brisker of the two and Yorkshire the maltier and harder. Neither is better; they are two different traditions and most people are firmly in one camp. If you find Yorkshire heavy, this is the one to try. Are the bags plastic free or compostable?Check before putting bags in a food waste caddy. Where is the tea grown?It is a blend, which is what makes an everyday tea taste the same season after season. Can I make iced tea or cold brew with it?Yes, and it suits both. Brew four bags in 500ml for five minutes, cool, then dilute and pour over ice. For cold brew, four bags in a litre of cold water in the fridge overnight gives a rounder, much less astringent drink. What does it go with?Everything a builder's tea goes with: buttered toast, a bacon sandwich, digestives, fruit cake. The briskness resets the palate against anything rich, which is why the style became the national default. Can I reuse the bag?Not usefully. One bag, one mug. A second pass on a used everyday bag gives coloured water and very little flavour."
            },
            {
                "title": "Ingredients & Nutrition",
                "content": "ComponentProportionWhat it bringsPack: PG Tips Original Black Tea 40, 116g; a brisk everyday black tea in standard one-cup bags. Store sealed, cool, dark and dry, away from coffee and spices. Read the ingredient list, the allergen advice, any certification marks and the best-before date off the current UK box.Components shown are those we can state honestly from the product name, the pack weight and the count.Sourcing & blend. PG Tips Original Black Tea is one of the two blends that between them account for most of the tea drunk in British kitchens. The tasting profile below is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. Our catalogue already carries the eighty-bag and four-hundred-bag boxes of the same original blend as well as the loose leaf version, so this listing fills the small pack position rather than introducing a new tea.What's in PG Tips Original Black Tea 40, 116g, and what isn't:In: black tea leaf and nothing else, in a standard one-cup bag.No added flavouring: this is the plain original. No bergamot, no fruit, no petals and no added sweetness."
            },
            {
                "title": "Flavour Science",
                "content": "The flavour of PG Tips Original Black Tea 40 is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the cup tastes the way it does from the first lift of steam to the last swallow.The outer layer is bright and short-lived: a clean, faintly sweet smell of warm bread and dry grass that comes off the bag the moment water hits it. These volatile compounds sit on the surface of the dried leaf and reach the nose before the liquid touches the tongue, which is why a freshly poured mug always reads strongest on the aroma and why a mug that has stood smells flatter even though the liquid itself has lost nothing.The flavour spike is where this blend distinguishes itself from its great rival. The briskness arrives first and arrives hard, a clean sharpness across the middle of the tongue, and the malt fills in behind it more lightly than a Yorkshire-style blend would. That is the house character rather than a shortfall: PG Tips is built to be bright and refreshing where the Yorkshire tradition is built to be deep and filling. At 2.9 grams a bag there is enough leaf to carry milk comfortably, and this is the densest stretch of the cup and the part a longer steep develops most.The base structure is a clean, moderately drying finish that clears the palate quickly and does not linger. The relatively restrained tannin is the reason this blend forgives a slightly long steep where a harder tea would turn harsh, and it is a large part of why it became a national default: it is difficult to get badly wrong in a hurry. A well made mug should still taste clean on the last inch rather than stewed.Getting it right in the cup. Use one bag per 250 to 300ml of water straight off the boil and give it three to four minutes. Under-steeping is the commonest fault in everyday tea, because the colour looks finished long before the malt has left the leaf, so a cup pulled at ninety seconds looks right and tastes hollow. Lift the bag out before the milk goes in, and press it gently rather than crushing it against the side of the mug, which drives a burst of tannin into a cup that had no need of it. Cold brewed in the fridge for eight hours the same bag gives a much softer drink with a rounder sweetness and no grip at all.How water and temperature change it. The same bag gives a measurably different mug depending on how you treat the water. Full boiling water and a four minute steep pull the heavier compounds for a rounder, slightly more astringent result; water that has sat off the boil, or a two minute steep, keeps the brisk top note forward and leaves the body thin. Hard water is the bigger variable in Britain and it is unkind to a brisk blend in particular, because the brightness is exactly what it flattens, so in a hard water area half a minute longer restores the balance while soft water lets the lift ring clearly and needs a touch less time. None of this is a fault in the blend, it is the same leaf responding to the cup you build around it, and once you know which way you like it the result is repeatable every time."
            },
            {
                "title": "Recipe Ideas",
                "content": "A brisk, plain, milk-friendly black tea is the right base for the traditional builds rather than the decorative ones. Five below cover the standard mug, a pot, an iced jug, an overnight cold brew and the builder's chai that turns a cheap everyday bag into something worth sitting down with.\nRecipes, born here first\n\n \n The Standard Mug\n \n How to make The Standard Mug with PG Tips Original Black Tea.\n \n 4 min\n 1 mug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 bag PG Tips Original Black Tea\n 250ml just boiled water\n Milk to taste\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Pour 250ml of water straight off the boil over one bag.\n Steep three to four minutes, covered if you have a saucer to hand.\n Lift the bag out and press it gently rather than crushing it.\n Add milk last, to taste.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A brisk, clean everyday mug. The gentle press is the difference between bright and bitter.\n\n \n A Pot for Four\n \n How to make A Pot for Four with PG Tips Original Black Tea.\n \n 6 min\n 4 mugs\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 4 bags PG Tips Original Black Tea\n 1 litre just boiled water\n A warmed teapot\n Milk\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Warm the pot with boiling water and tip it away.\n Add four bags and a full litre of freshly boiled water.\n Steep four minutes, then lift every bag out.\n Cosy the pot and pour.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Four even mugs rather than one good one and three stewed ones. Taking the bags out at four minutes is the whole trick.\n\n \n Iced Tea with Lemon\n \n How to make Iced Tea with Lemon with PG Tips Original Black Tea.\n \n 10 min + chill\n 1 jug\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 4 bags PG Tips Original Black Tea\n 500ml just boiled water\n Ice\n Lemon\n Sugar to taste\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Brew four bags in 500ml of boiling water for five minutes to make a strong concentrate.\n Sweeten while hot; sugar will not dissolve once it is cold.\n Cool to room temperature, then top up to a litre with cold water.\n Pour over a full glass of ice with a slice of lemon.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Clear rather than cloudy, because you diluted after brewing instead of brewing weak.\n\n \n Overnight Cold Brew\n \n How to make Overnight Cold Brew with PG Tips Original Black Tea.\n \n 8 hours\n 1 litre\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 4 bags PG Tips Original Black Tea\n 1 litre cold water\n A sealed jug\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Drop four bags into a litre of cold water in a sealed jug.\n Refrigerate for eight hours, or overnight.\n Lift the bags out and drink within two days.\n Serve straight or over ice, without milk.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Rounder and sweeter with no grip at all. Cold water never extracts the harsh tannins, so it cannot go bitter however long you forget it.\n\n \n Builder's Chai\n \n How to make Builder's Chai with PG Tips Original Black Tea.\n \n 12 min\n 2 mugs\n Medium\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 3 bags PG Tips Original Black Tea\n 300ml water\n 300ml whole milk\n 4 crushed cardamom pods, a cinnamon stick, 3 cloves\n Sugar to taste\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Simmer the crushed spices in 300ml of water for five minutes to open them up.\n Add three tea bags and simmer for a further three minutes.\n Pour in the milk and bring it back to a bare simmer without letting it boil over.\n Sweeten to taste and strain into two mugs.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A brisk everyday blend is the correct base for chai, because the spices need a tea that pushes back. A delicate tea disappears entirely."
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